Posts by StopthePropaganda

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Segway-overpriced Toys For Tw@ts

range too short to be useful. 15 miles MAX but not at the oh so pathetic MAX speed of 12MPH. What's the range at this awesome max speed?

There's guys building motorized electric bicycles using RC airplane motors and batteries, gettting better range and higher speed for a hell of a lot less money, plus no wanky stability issues needed.

Want to see something fun? Watch a Segway deal with poor traction, on one wheel. Water on a metal grate is fun. The computer tries to balance by increasing throttle on the slipping wheel, and increases to max power if necessary. When that speed causes enough friction to finally allow the tire to grab, it's turning much faster than the computer limited 12MPH. Now visualize-one wheel stopped, the other turning at max RPM and suddenly getting traction. Computer has to try to haul down a lot of rotating mass thru braking...braking torque gets transmitted back into the axle...a quick rotational jerk added to a face plant, and there's nothing human reaction times can do to keep you standing.

The Segway is proof that a fool and his money are soon parted. A kid's kick scooter is superior. hell, those shoes with the wheel in the heel..too bad they don't come in adult sizes! Failing that, there's attaching a cordless drill to your bike...still cheaper and faster.

I do all my commuting by motorcycle. Anything that requires carrying cargo, i have an old 4 cylinder car (bought it used, how's that for recycling-well over a ton of metal and plastics!) If there's anything I need to get to that can wait for a 12MPH max speed, I'll "shanks pony" it.

is this envy we hear?:)

admit it, Mr. Williams. You just wanna win the prize.

*gasp* that's it! this story is mere propaganda to keep others from entering so the writer can win his shuttle launch visit! Pure genius! :)

Being witness to a shuttle launch is one of the things I must do before I die-I've been witness to only one *truly* loud situation-the takeoff roar of the Concorde at full throttle. Next on the LOUD scale is a shuttle launch (I want to get reeal close). Finally, to cap it off, I want to witness an above ground nuclear test. Doesn't get much louder than that!:)

Beware of your plan works, Mr. Williams. the humidity in Orlando, any time of year, is atrocious. ;)

what did you think you were gonna get

with the Democrats' promise of "free universal" health care? Were y'all stupid enough to think it was truly free? All you get is Government having vested interest in controlling more of your life, mandating what you can eat, the risks you can take, anything that some "study" shows can improve your health, and therefore reduce the Government Expense to provide it. This also means of course, government mandated and controlled health monitoring.

because Government is soooo good at such things and never c*cks it up due to bureaucracy and power struggles, and never, ever does things to control the citizenry and elevate itself to Godhood.

"The Gubmint is Mother, the Gubmint is Father"..to paraphrase a line from a much better sci-fi series from a decade ago than the modern Galactica will ever be.

@ Liam-there's Worms for the Wii too

and the graphics are much better than the PS1 version. I have that as well and it's hard to identify weapons on screen when I play it on the PS2. Worms: a Space Oddity for the Wii is fun old school invertebrate squashing and has only one serious problem-it doesn't have enough weapons.

But, you do get to use the wiimote to lob grenades, and you get to set off weapons by holding the controller like the detonator plunger from an Acme cartoon and pushing downward.

Worms World party for the PC was still the best. And we shall not mention the strange stepchildren to the franchise that Worms: Forts and Worms 3D are.

you all miss the point

guy commits fraud, fakes federal documents-not to sneak out of an oppressive country but to sneak *in* to another one. At that point he is caught and starts gaming the system. Why the hell did any sort of reference to legal trickery become necessary at all?!

"let's see. you faked a passport to violate customs. You did it not to escape your own country but now are claiming asylum from it. Your very first activity on our soil was a federal crime. Common sense tells me that your 'asylum" is only in response to the fact you got caught.

"Bailiff, put his @ss on the first boat back to his claimed home nation. And if he returns again under false pretenses, or is found in this country without having entered legally, have him executed. "

because the ONLY reason for ILLEGAL immigration is criminal. EVER. Regardless of what well funded groups of propagandists try to sell you. If anything, it's "criminally" easy to get one's citizenship. Within 5 miles of my office, there are almost a dozen attorneys who will handle every aspect of the paperwork...you don't even need to learn English, these guys are pretty slick, much less that pesky "learning the laws of the land" or that "oppressive" Ellis island memorization thing. Just hand over $300 cash, and show up when asked to fill out the paperwork. Sure there's a few more steps, but if you're an "honest hard working" individual "just looking for a better opportunity" then you'll have no trouble getting this done.

However, if you're here as an "indentured servant" to a coyote or Asian gang, or here as a member of aforementioned gang or Mexican cartel, or even a declared member of any South American or Mexican military, then yeah, it's a little harder to get legal. But then, "immigrants" such as these have *no intention* of ever getting citizenship, just getting the benefits, and now clogging the courts with "asylum" claims that are absolute b*llocks.

P.s. Bleeding hearts, propaganda soldiers, don't even bother with rebuttals on how you "think" or "feel" that I'm "wrong" in order to bolster your "cause". This is what I do for a living. California Social Services. I see it every day, in welfare offices, in the police stations, in the American "barrios" where I'm too stubborn to leave. And this is only one county-I doubt that this county's situation is rare.

P.P.s. what's real fun is seeing county government resources, and even some misappropriated federal funds, to host, aid, and abet Reconquista and La Raza members and sympathisers. City Council members with plenty of VST and Calle XIII support...police ordered NOT to question immigration status of arrested and even convicted prisoners....

@ Mark-THANK YOU!

If someone sues someone for having a pink flamingo on their lawn, and wins. The Government, and Law Enforcement, are used to extract payment, under penalty of Criminal charges.

This also both sets legal precedent for all other lawn ornament cases, as well as creates intimidation.

Therefore, it is effectively ILLEGAL to display a pink plastic flamingo on your lawn. We have effectively created an unwritten LAW banning "tacky" lawn decorations.

How can you even be close to "free" when there's millions of unwritten laws just like that? And even the written ones, are now being copywritten!...Funny how California, the Breakfast Cereal State (flakes, fruits and nuts!) who puts on a big pretentious front of being freer than those "nasty conservative Bible thumpin" states, is the one that has effectively created the Fascist (the original "government and business" definition not the modern "dern Nazis" schoolkid definition) Police State...and did so over a decade ago!

Guess that's why they complain about the current Administration-either they're upset the Feds are cutting in on their action, or is it psychologial projection-accusing the "other side" of doing what they've already done?

but oh yeah. we've got "gay marriage" and are gonna "legalize pot". (nevermind it was this california style mindset of "what I want is more important than what you want" that caused pot to be illegal in the first place) so then it's all okay that we're giving up the right to choose one's own life, career, speech, happiness, safety.....

@ the guy too understandable to be amanfrommars

you must be faking the name. that whole response was too understandable. And incorrect. The X-47 UCAV (which got the majority of it's brains from Berkeley-you know, those guys who make a big patchouli-and-pot stink about warfare, but get a vast amount of their funding from the very sources they're too stoned to understand) is designed to take off, fly a mission (recon or engage targets of opportunity-the only human intervention is a go-nogo decision on firing, and that's because of policy not technology) and land at it's assigned airfield. A recon mission would be completely hands off. The tech demonstrator already did full take-off, fly route and land completely autonomously.

They envision keeping these things in crates, with connections on the outside for a fuel input, battery charger and data link. You plug in jet fuel, keep the batteries trickle charged, then plug in a laptop and download the mission. Set the crate out on the tarmac, open it up, activate the drone, and stand back. When it comes home, let it cool down then fold it back into the crate. Repeat as necessary.

Humans have only been "in the loop" for the last decade because of policy. Long range persistent missiles like the Harpoon, the Silkworm, and the Exocet have 50 or longer mileage ranges where once released, they go towards their assigned target and in some cases, if that target no longer exists, will find another one, all without human guidance. ALCM's and Tomahawks do everything but land (since they're kamikaze devices) but is there any real big difference from a Tomahawk-type device to go from "reach target and explode" to "reach target and drop conventional bomb and then follow second course home"?

Just like telecomms going from human switchboards to fully automated IP packet routed devices. Most human operators at government and big companies were still around in recent history not because the technology wasn't already doing the job, but for political (Union) and customer perception issues.

single engine isn't a benefit for this design either

and yes, the Osprey can run on a single engine. part of the complexity is the wacky transmission linkages required to transfer power in the event of a flame out.

No one's going to build a man-rated single engine military helicopter when a dual engine one gives them redundancy against battle damage. Plus, aren't all aircraft that are expected to operate over oceans (Navy, etc) *required* to be dual engine? Notice the Apache is still dual engined, So is the Navy variant of the AH-1. Neither is your upcoming Tiger ground support version, or the Russian Hind series.

The devil is in the details, and this is no Cheyenne. The ability to modify the rotor speed of two coaxial rotors, with serious rotating gyroscopic mass each, is a big deal. To some engineering ignorant hack (the type who thing "black boxes" are made of some super material to survive crashes) then it's no big deal.

But to us aviation nuts, and RC model (err...drone? RPV? UAV?) pilots, who've dug into this sort of thing since we cut our teeth on old modelling magazines, this prototype, and the CarterCopter are very exciting indeed.

@zm

In the US, all legal weapons sales (except for C&Rs) are run thru a load of paperwork with the weapon's serial number, the buyer's ID info, fingerprints, etc. Each seller is required to have this data available for years for whenever ATFE decides they need to go thru them all. If even a T is miscrossed, or heave forbid, a "ditto" is used, the fines and fees are tremendous and the dealer is shut down and his records confiscated. Which means stored for however long the ATFE and it's masters decide, in their own facility, with little or no oversight.

So what's the difference then, of your records being stored at multiple locations, or confiscated by ATFE, or in some central "registry"? What about major states with "microstamping" laws with the serial number database to be accessable by LE whenever "necessary"? Is it not "registry" just because Democrats say it's not? A rose by any other name, and all that.

We won't even get into the "accessed with proper legal reasons" issue. Any activist judge can come up with a hundred "reasons" and his signature alone makes it "legal" thru warrants. "Think of the Children!" "OMG White Supremacist!" "Eek Evil Terrorist!"-there's three that are guaranteed to work anywhere under the 9th Circuit Court and anywhere near Mayor Boomberg's influence.

how about fixing the big problem with ringing?

if I'm on a wireless network, it takes a minimum of 4 rings on the caller's side before my iPhone rings once. Most often it goes into voice mail. If I take it off the wireless and run it on 3G only, it usually starts ringing on the second ring.

Supposedly the 2.02 fix was going to address that, but I'm seeing no difference. If my iPhone doesn't iRing, then what's the iUse of having it as a iCommunications iDevice? Having to workaround by disabling wireless (half of the reason of having the handset!) isn't acceptable.

thank goodness we have this thing called "the Private Sector"

Even though the Falcon series of boosters have failed three times (the last one mostly due to a costly miscalculation....I wonder if anyone had predicted it but were shouted down by MBA's) their track record is still better than the early USAF and NASA attempts. Once SpaceX proves the Falcon booster system is reliable, there's just scaling up to go from there to a man-rated vehicle. Scaled Composites is already probing the suborbital realm with man-rated vehicles already.

NASA has a place, but it's not all gloom and doom. If government fails to provide the goods, then if there's profit in it, private industry (yay capitalism!) will fill the vacuum. We do have other choices than former military hardware-which is what the whole Russian program is running off of-they'll be out of old ICBMs someday.

If American industry doesn't take it, there's always Asian or European consortiums that could choose to take the space initiative right now. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries has already launched orbital and deep space probes. The French Arianne design can easily be improved by Airbus. It's just a matter of getting short sighted politicians to do something *for* the human race instead of just spreading socialist agendas and making sure they remain a "ruling class".

my work is deploying these

it's a great toy. But do i need multi-axis tilt sensors and Youtube playback for work? No. For a work device, the ugly Treo series does the job perfectly. (even windoze mobile works reasonably well for enterprise use.

But as a multimedia platform, it's fun. except for one glaring flaw-where's the stereo bluetooth?!

See, as an entertainment device, 3G problems aren't critical. Nor is the fact that most of the App Store apps are games. Not work, or enterprise productivity solutions. Toys and games. As long as we can play, the reliability issues and Apple holding the deadman switch are irrelevant.

Hell, I even forget it's a phone most of the time.

Which makes me wonder, why the Touch PDA/game system doesn't sell better...then I realize, it's OPM. Other People's Money. Try to justify it as an "enterprise" device and someone else pays for it. Hard to get 'em to pay for one without the phone (and therefore, remote kill capability) so that device doesn't sell as much. I'd never justify paying for one of these personally...

...goes back to cleaning the fingerprints off the screen....Preciousssss.....ahem!

Article title is inaccurate and disappointing!!

Though this sounds like what a few co-workers and I are trying to set up-an "extreme" class of robot wars-where the arena is an isolated concrete structure or an unpopulated island, and all spectators are by camera.

Weight limited to one ton. Flight altitude limited to 50 meters, only rules are: no deliberate targetting of cameras, and all weapon effects (fire, radiation, electrical, etc) must be down to "safe" levels within one hour after firing. No lame "style" points either. The match is over when all but one of the robots cannot move and inflict damage upon it's opponent(s). Maybe a 15 minute time limit to keep people from developing "hide bots" or something stupid.

No limits on power sources ( unless a ruptured power supply violates the One Hour Safe rule) and weapons effects need to be limited to the Arena. Theatre missiles okay but ICBMs are right out. lasers, fire, acids, rail guns, grenades, whatever you can pack in under the weight limit. DU might get an exception to the "safe" rule...

None of these mamby-pamby DARPA challenges where things just drive around-IIRC they're not even allowed to deliberately run each other off the road...and wimpy MoD contests where the most powerful weapon is a camera? Not even a laser for painting targets for airstrikes? C'mon people..think of the *potential*!

@mark

never underestimate the tactical value of a good propaganda or "hearts and minds" campaign. Look how well it's worked to keep the US Navy from training in Active Sonar, and how much damage it has done to American troops in Iraq from fake accusations of Haditha. Or the KGB-sponsored "Anti War Movement" that demoralized the nation even decades after Vietnam.

Trashed communications hurts the people, and in a democratic nation or one still listens to it's people, cyberattacks make the people less interested in longer fights, more believing that they will lose, helping destroy their fighting spirit-which is a bad thing for the military that is supported and beholden to the people.

A simpler and more efficient technique

Instead of going through all this trouble to make tanks invisible, why don't we simply block the sight of the enemy?

I suggest issuing to all enemy troops, a version of Douglas Adams' Peril Sensitive Sunglasses. That way, when you want to attack them, they'll go black and have the same effect as "invisibility".

Of course you need a cooperative enemy. Any Western force, like the US or Britain, will be happy to unilaterally give up sight advantage and tactical superiority in order to be "good neighbors". this way p*ssant countries can then show how "teh awesum" they are by sneaking up to castrated and practically toothless Western forces. See Chinese-ordered propaganda to shut down active sonar, and Middle Eastern-ordered propaganda to eliminate robotic combat systems...programs that give Western militaries a distinct advantage over ancient tactics of treating your armies as swarms of expendable kamikazes.

Mine's the one with the Berkeley and Obama patches all over it, reeking of patchouli. The PSS's make it easy to see things from their point of view.

Apple can patent this, a first realization of TIAC

TIAC-Turd In A Can. The next stage of Pimp-Style Marketing, where "selling the sizzle, not the steak" is surpassed by making people want to pay good money for something they know is bad,

The next evolution, is getting people to pay good money for practically nothing, and finally the ultimate corporate ideology where there is no product and people scramble to pay you good money for nothing. KW Jeter would be proud.

wow, excellent contortionist logic "Sara Bee"

how something can be "impulsive" and "meticulously planned" at the same time is an amazing effort of "Quantum Bullsh*ttery" (my term, give credit where do. Also see "Schroedinger's B*llocks"). But, when one is going to push their emotional agenda ahead of logic and common sense, why even pay attention to logic and common sense in the first place?

Criminal acts by their very nature are uncivilized. What dumb@ss came up with the idea that a society is "civilized" by protecting, tolerating, maintaining and even encouraging uncivilized folk? A groupthink meme started in the misty past by an opium or LSD aided "philosopher" does not equal truth.

used to be a single murder was enough to warrant execution for the good of the People. But then someone got it in their heads that somehow, executing someone who *initiated* the cycle of death was a bad idea. Now, multiple murders aren't always enough. Rapes, assaults...infect a few people with a slow-killing plague, blind, maim, or disable them for life for personal greed or random evil, destroy victims mentally just for kicks, and even better, serve time for multiple offenses, and that's okay. Support them for decades at a life better than many innocent people around the world.

How many decades of increasing violence, increasing *level* of violence, that this total crock of a social experiment has tolerated and encouraged, will it take before you people open your eyes and admit it failed? as a previous poster pointed out, Japan has a lower execution number but a higher rate-people *know* that a murder rap is NOT a way to get "street cred" and a status booster on the street. Or are you gonna put on blinders and say that such an attitude amongst street thugs doesn't exist? How does such an attitude exist? Because it is created by emotionally blinded, dogma infused people who refuse to see the "road to Hell" their "good intentions" have been causing for generations now.

Death penalty WORKS when applied honestly, and regularly (there's no issue of racism if you execute ALL your death penalty crooks quickly instead of waiting around). There is NO repeat offense. And in America's leaky legal system, where crooks get off the hook at the drop of a hat, only the most nasty crooks even make it to Death Row, and to fail an appeal is even harder-unless one is real guilty.

And don't bring up the one or two "innocent" death row inmates. Because their "innocence" is all legal loopholery, of evidence lost decades ago and of memories of witnesses from years past. Legal trickery does not mean innocence. And for the thousands of braggart murders currently incarcerated and often released, and their tens of thousands of victims that occur because you people refused to do the right thing, one actual mistake is practically impossible, but worth the risk.

And since liberals usually don't understand the concept of sacrifice for others, before you start the "if YOU were the innocent..." I answer again, yes. Because I already volunteered years ago. So have thousands of others, willing to place their lives on the line, sacrificing everything for the good of their families and society. We/they are called Soldiers. Each day comrades take a bullet or bomb and die unremarked by most of the world, without the benefit of some pain management cocktails or euthanasia-minded hanging drops. Ask any one of them if they'd die to save their team, or guarantee any one of them that his "conviction" and 'execution" means the removal of a thousand wife killers and murderous dope dealers from America's prisons, and you bet your well-protected, American-culture-produced @rse you'd get a positive answer.

but, I waste my time I'm sure. Arguing common sense about the death penalty with a liberal is exactly like trying to convince a fundamentalist Muslim or Christian that Jesus/Mohammed were insane, fictional characters. With luck, though, a fence sitter might just take the time to think about it.

@ those complaining of overpriced vs. America

just wait a few weeks. the way the exchange rate is going, it'll be a bargain price for ya. Your pound sterling is already twice the dollar. Any bets on it hitting 2.5x within two years, or 3x after Obama and a Democratic congressional majority rule?

@ simbr

my 4 or more year old Intel webcam does exactly that-it has a physical slider that goes over the lens. IIRC most webcams used to come with dust covers to protect the optics. Then when they became cheap and throwaway and ever-smaller, that was left out.

Fortunately, they're all USB nowadays so you just yank it when you're not using it, and plug it in when you do.

Best LP article EVAR!!

wow. make a few million illegally

pay back a few hundred thousand. Serve some time, maybe, then $$profit$$

Anyone caought and convicted of running an illegal operation of any sort, should be required to pay ALL plus a percentage of what they made from their illegal activities. Especially corporate crimes. if they can show records these 'doctors" made $3 million then that's what the minimum fines should amount to.

baby steps

Though they might consider a micro gas turboshaft for lighter engine weight and better reliability. Course your fuel consumption is higher, so the trade off might not be worth it.

Still, Mr. Page, ya gotta give credit where credit is due. A typical "summer jetpack story" would be one of those guys who're just repackaging the old Bell hydrogen peroxide jobs. This thing and the H4 are at least different and kinda interesting.

besides, some day, someone might crack the design and make something awesome. Perhaps combining this ducted fan unit with that jet powered skydiving wing. Either way, there'd be no progress without *trying*.

LOL@ the haters

it worked in 1989. Maybe even earlier but I can't vouch for that. The laser was capable of knocking out a half-dozen small aircraft within 20 seconds. As long as we knew where the target aircraft were, and they followed a steady course. Surprisingly, the chosen wavelength wasn't so affected by weather as "critics" claimed, either.

What we didn't have, was the computational and sensor power to locate, track, aim, fire and repeat. Now, we do. This weapon, for the slow and ango-jingoistic amongst you, is *not* for ICBMs. It is designed to defeat theatre weapons , cruise missiles and other non exoatmospheric threats.

Boeing had two aircraft that were virtually identical on the outside. "Cobra Belle" contained the cryogenically maintained thermal telescope for "science" missions-like observing Soviet launch plumes and using spectrographic and other info to get performance parameters. It had an elongated turret affair on the top of the aircraft. It's twin, similar in design, had a slightly different turret profile. And notice, it was designed to fire *up* which is necessary for intercepting terminal-phase vehicles. Boeing would park the both of them sometimes, right next to each other, within view of Interstate 5, after the lack of proper aiming and guidance capability severely stalled this phase of SDI.

Notice, this "new" aircraft is nose turreted. Limited aim upwards, and those of you who understand laser power would realize that going after a ballistic MIRV from some flat trajectory would require massively more power than being underneath the flight path and firing *upward* with a shorter distance to target and lessening atmospheric interference.

Of course, those who employ internet "haters" realize this weapon gives a significant advantage in a battlefield, capable of clearing SCUD type delivery systems and enemy UAV's from the sky in seconds. It's effective on cruise missiles whether sub-launched or air-launch. And it effectively stops kamikaze-copying terrorists. Oil-state funded jihadists and an increasingly unstable China really hate anything that becomes an equalizer to their millions of meat-robots willing or forced to die without any thought for themselves.

The future is coming, and we're bringin' the Jiffy-Pop. You don't wanna be the salt and butter.

perhaps we can sell them..

..some leftover names for wacky PR nationalist projects we didn't get around to doing in the 60's and 70s? They can get something that sounds snappier, and still get to do the big parades to show the World their industrial might.

until the first parking lot bender

the first minor bodywork damage will cause dangerous consequences to the vehicle's aerodynamics. One knucklehead opening his door too fast and the wing is damaged. One enraged spandex wearing bicyclist using his fixx as a bludgeon and your expensive toy doesn't fly.

This thing is designed either by MBA's or former dot-com web designers. It's a solution looking for a problem. Perhaps some Web 2.0 tard will want one, or GoldenPalace.com will strap ad banners to it.

Now if I'm interested in a flying car, the PALV looks nice but it might not work in reality. And for my choice in the Sport Aircraft class, there's the Icon A5 amphibian.

more government power "for the children!"

next up, no names like Jesus or Mohammed. No Obama's, nothing that may or may not offend. Government intervention into even more private decisions, that can't be abused or misused, cannit? What's the worst that can happen?

Maybe forcing people to change names that the self-designated-minority-flavor-of-the-month decides to be offended by?

I worked with a guy who's first baby, had it been a boy, would have been Joe Kerr. We dissuaded him from naming his daughter Schmoe....

@AC "terrorist blocking"

naw, that won't be as effective as claiming stolen, unblocked phones are being used to create and distribute child pr0n. Then they'll use that as an excuse to shut down entire networks just on the offchance something illicit might be transmitted.

touchscreens already deadly

I've seen sanctimonious rich liberal types out of San Francisco driving their new SLK's and f**king around with getting email on their newest iPhone while in after-work traffic. Holding it right up in front of their stupid egocentric faces and nearly rearending cars in front of them-twice in ten miles before the @sshat I was one lane over from finally exited. Big Obama sticker in the back window. Who buys a brand new Mercedes and mars it's glass with a campaign sticker that's going to be worthless and irrelevant in (best case) after the second reelection attempt? (same goes for anyone stupid enough to do this to a brand new car-"W 04" on what was a brand-new SUV? Pro Al Gore stickers on what was a brand new Lexus? WTF?)

This was just on one commute, where I was offsite two days. usually I can avoid the San Francisco crowd, but if these sort of tw@ts are common enough that I run into them the second time I take that commute, then heaven help us when there's more of them.

Giving 'em a touchscreen in their Mercedes and Beemers that's "hackable" and there'll be demands for an email client, instant messaging, and f**king youtube while they drive. And of course, they'll not accept a bit of blame (the rich w@nkers who buy these) for the damage they cause. They'll just demand a "law" be passed to protect themselves from their own stupidity, and then scream that Republicans are taking away their rights.

(Where's that d@mned earthquake we've been promised that'll split the San Andreas Fault and drop that City of the Insane into the sea?)